Syd is named after Syd Barrett. Rick may very well be the preeminent Syd Barrett fan in the universe. Me, not so much.

I realized, later, that I didn’t mind the actual albums. It was the outtakes. They were taken out for a reason. However, they were released (in bootleg and regular versions) because the fans needed them. Obsessions can never truly be explained. I do have some aural scarring, though Syd was still little when I begged for mercy and Rick played Syd Barrett when I was not around.

But now, T.R. has discovered the music. And he loves it. It makes him happy. T. asked Rick to send me some so T. could listen in the car on the way to school. Rick asked me what T. was smoking. I said that he wasn’t smoking anything as far as I could tell and to please send the music (without outtakes).

The file I got in my email was called HellFreezesOver.

This morning we listened. T. loved it.

Hell might actually be a cold place today, if not entirely frozen. I liked the lyrics because they’re playful. The music has boink, which is the technical term I invented for music that sounds happy, like it could be played by Muppets. Syd’s voice is still a little cheese-grater inflected, which keeps me from saying I want to listen to it often, but it’s totally tolerable for a car ride.